Human decency demands that I be a compassionate person, whereas business only demands that I be a profitable one.
Paul Krugman wrote an interesting piece about John Kerry's health plan for the Houston Chronicle. You can read it yourself here:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/2671864
But what struck me about it was the following statement he makes:
"Catastrophic health expenses, which can easily drive a family into bankruptcy, fall into the same category [of random misfortune like earthquakes]. Yet private insurers try hard, and often successfully, to avoid covering such expenses. (That’s not a moral condemnation; they are, after all, in business.)"
Medicine, civil law, criminal justice are professions that profit from the misfortune of others. In these professions, profit is justified by the help provided to people who are suffering. Insurance profits from balancing our fear of misfortune with the probability of actual misfortune and promises to help us in the event that we have need.
When members of such professions increase their profits with no commensurate increase (or an actual decrease) in the aid that they provide to those in need, they are deserving of all moral condemnation that the righteous can muster.
An idiosyncratic and non sequitorial examination of the contents of one head.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Monday, July 19, 2004
back to the floor
I have a penchant for PSB reality TV shows. Colonial House and Frontier House were fabulous.
Seeing contemporary people experience cultural history first hand is wholly engrossing.
Randomly surfing around I noticed a TV show called "Back To the Floor." The premise behind this show is to send higher ups of different companies back to the floor. A general manager from Burger King is sent to work the register and make Whoppers. The president of a cruise ship company is sent to work cleaning cabins and serving drinks.
Based on the episode summaries it seems like this is an interesting lark for the executives involved.
It is not a realistic experience of what it would be like to go "back to the floor."
The CEOs should not be allowed to end their work day early because their feet hurt from standing all day. They should not receive help from other employees that goes beyond what a new employee would receive. They should receive a paycheck for the work they do and they should receive an employer evaluation from their performance. I did not know that cruise ship personel make $1.50 a day with gratuities making up the rest of their wage and am curious to know how much that CEO would have made.
Still, it is funny to see company presidents wear the silly uniforms and exhibit incompetence at the required tasks.
The experience appears to give them insights into factors that affect the efficiency of day to day operations but it doesn't change the way they intend to run their businesses. No one is going to increase employee wages or hire more people to deal with problems of being understaffed. I imagine that CEOs are under tremendous pressure to increase productivity and reduce costs. None of them will reduce their salaries to improve worker's wages and none of them will use a part of these profits to increase the wages of workers.
At the end of a week they go back to their real jobs and breathe a sigh of relief. Very Bread and Circuses
Seeing contemporary people experience cultural history first hand is wholly engrossing.
Randomly surfing around I noticed a TV show called "Back To the Floor." The premise behind this show is to send higher ups of different companies back to the floor. A general manager from Burger King is sent to work the register and make Whoppers. The president of a cruise ship company is sent to work cleaning cabins and serving drinks.
Based on the episode summaries it seems like this is an interesting lark for the executives involved.
It is not a realistic experience of what it would be like to go "back to the floor."
The CEOs should not be allowed to end their work day early because their feet hurt from standing all day. They should not receive help from other employees that goes beyond what a new employee would receive. They should receive a paycheck for the work they do and they should receive an employer evaluation from their performance. I did not know that cruise ship personel make $1.50 a day with gratuities making up the rest of their wage and am curious to know how much that CEO would have made.
Still, it is funny to see company presidents wear the silly uniforms and exhibit incompetence at the required tasks.
The experience appears to give them insights into factors that affect the efficiency of day to day operations but it doesn't change the way they intend to run their businesses. No one is going to increase employee wages or hire more people to deal with problems of being understaffed. I imagine that CEOs are under tremendous pressure to increase productivity and reduce costs. None of them will reduce their salaries to improve worker's wages and none of them will use a part of these profits to increase the wages of workers.
At the end of a week they go back to their real jobs and breathe a sigh of relief. Very Bread and Circuses
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